Burst Ratio in Concatenated Markov-based Channels

This paper deals with the burst ratio parameter, which describes the burstiness of a packet loss observed in digital networks. It is one of the input parameters of E-model – the most widely used method of assessing conversational quality of telephony. The burst ratio is defined for one channel scenario so it can be calculated when the whole transmission path has been characterized by a single set of parameters. The main objective of the paper is to extend the burst ratio definition when the transmission path is defined as a tandem concatenation of transmission channels being described by their individual burst ratios. It is assumed that packet loss of a single channel is described by a 2-state Markov chain. The final result of the research is an equation describing the burst ratio parameter when the transmission path consists of multiple concatenated channels. The derived formula has been validated by extensive simulations.